McDonough's Mistake

James W. McDonough, from Chicago, Illinois, was one of the first inventors to de-throne Bell. McDonough was a manufacturer, who had a hobby of experimenting with electricity to create sound. He invented the Teleloge on April 10, 1876 and applied for a patent. McDonough was not as fortunate as some of the inventors. His patent had to be sent to Patent Post Office Hearing, which took eight years.

The major setback with McDonough's invention was not the actual receiver, but his transmitter. The transmitter was indentical to Reis. He also followed in Reis's foot steps by making the same mistakes and reffering to it as the circuit breaker. Both men had not been familiarized with the microphone mode.

It is very interesting when people have the same ideas, but one person gets a patent where the other gets nothing. Many of the invetors were facing the same problems.


"In the United States, in interference actions, the patent goes to the inventor who can prove priority of conception, not necessarily to the one who was first to file" (Evenson).


Works Cited: Evenson, Edward A. "The McDonoughTelephone Transmitter." Antique Telephone History Website. 14 June 2009 .